HARRISBURG - Central Dauphin High School was presented with the Army National Guard national ranking trophy at halftime of the boys’ basketball game on Friday. The honor is part of the seventh annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the Army National Guard and Central Dauphin is one of just fifty schools being honored.
The Rams finished ranked No. 69 in the country by MaxPreps, a California-based company that ranks more than 16,000 high school football teams.
Sergeant First Class Jeffrey Brandt of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard presented Coach McNamee and the Rams with the Army National Guard national ranking trophy at halftime of the boys’ basketball game on Friday night.
“The Army National Guard national ranking trophy is an outstanding award,” said head coach Glen McNamee in a statement. “It is great to be recognized as one of the top teams in the country. This season was a total team effort, everyone came to play everyday and that is a testament to our coaches.”
No one expected the Central Dauphin football team to go all the way in 2011.
That didn’t stop the Rams from taking the season one game at a time, making their way through the conference tournament, the district tournament and then the state tournament. Their never quit, never surrender attitude helped them come from behind in the last three games of the district tournament, winning each game by less than 7 points. The Rams beat North Allegheny 23-20 on a field goal with time running out in the state semi-final game and then defeated North Penn 14-7 to win the PIAA Class AAAA football championship and finish a historical 15-1 season. This is the first-ever football championship for Central Dauphin.
Junior Zayd Issah, the Class AAAA Co-Player of the Year, led the team on offense and defense. As a running back, Issah had over 1,300 rushing yards with 672 receiving yards as a wide receiver and 31 total touchdowns. He led the team in both rushing and receiving yardage.
As linebacker, he recorded 14 sacks and 123 total tackles.
Junior quarterback Brandon LaVia, threw 96 passes for 1,490 yards and 26 touchdowns. He rushed for 4 more scores on 50 carries and 164 yards. Daylin Russo led the team with 125 total tackles and Penn State recruit Evan Schwan led the team with 16.5 sacks.
“We are pleased to announce that this is the seventh year the National Guard has presented nationally ranked football teams with the national ranking trophy,” said LTC William Dones of the Army National Guard in a statement. “It is our pleasure to support this program and honor these teams, players, coaches, schools, and parents, because they exhibit characteristics we hold dear in the National Guard, such as character, talent, and courage.”
MaxPreps uses a sophisticated computer program, known as the Freeman Rankings, to determine team rank for the Tour of Champions.
The system utilizes the huge number of game results stored in the MaxPreps database. Generally, the more a team wins the higher the ranking, but the system takes into account quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents), margin of victory, and strength of schedule. Playoff games are weighted 2.1 times a regular season game.
“On behalf of MaxPreps, I would like to congratulate Coach McNamee and the Central Dauphin High School football team,” said President and Founder, Andy Beal in a statement. “For the better part of a decade, MaxPreps and the Army National Guard have partnered to honor the top high school football teams in America. As partners, MaxPreps brings the expertise to rank every high school team in the nation and the Army National Guard represents and honors the hard work and dedication required to excel on the football field. Together, MaxPreps and the Army National Guard have built the most prestigious nationwide high school sports awards program in America today.”
Information used in this story was provided by MaxPreps.
